The Zebra experimental chamber sits atop a 1.9 vertical transmission line that has 16 diagnostics ports, equally spaced at 22.5 degrees, with alternating diameters of 3” and 2”. Diagnostics ports can be used for fielding core as well as user provided diagnostics. Core diagnostics include a bolometer and PCDs and XRDs for radiation energy and power measurements, four-color optical laser shadowgraphy and interferometry, Faraday rotation diagnostics, x-ray pinhole cameras, and visible and x-ray spectroscopy. Zebra can be used with several type of loads including a variety of wire-arrays, gas puffs, flyer plates, and customized rod and coil loads. The latter produce magnetic fields in the 1MG to 4MG range in a volume of 10mm3 for over 30ns. Wire array implosions radiate a bright broadband x-ray flux with up to 20kJ of x-ray energy in a 12-25 ns time interval. In addition, the 50TW Leopard laser beam can be coupled to Zebra experiments. Leopard in long-pulse mode delivers 30J in 0.8ns and in short-pulse 15J in 0.35ps. Coupled Zebra-Leopard shots create opportunities to investigate magnetized plasma physics in MegaGauss-range magnetic fields as well as the fundamental physics of magnetized inertial fusion energy.
The Leopard laser is a high-power, hybrid Ti:Sapphire/Nd:glass laser system that can be operated in long (30J, 0.8ns) or short (15J, 0.35ps) pulse modes delivering up to 1019W/cm2 on target with a bandwidth of 5nm. A vertical laser beam access has been installed in the Zebra target chamber to bring in the Leopard laser beam to support coupled Zebra pulsed power and Leopard laser experiments. The short-pulse Leopard laser beam is transported to the Zebra vacuum chamber through the Optical Switching Apparatus, i.e., an evacuated beam line. This apparatus focuses the short pulse Leopard beam with an Off-Axis Parabolic (OAP) mirror. The long pulse is transported to Zebra through a different optical path and focused on target with lenses. The refractive optics can focus the laser beam within a region of about 5cm in diameter around the center of the Zebra target chamber. The Zebra generator is synchronized with lasers for coupled shots and diagnostics. Examples of Zebra-Leopard coupled shots include using Leopard to drive a source of backlit photons for Zebra experiments as well as studying magnetized plasmas in MegaGauss-range magnetic fields.
The suite of core diagnostics available at Zebra includes four-color optical laser diagnostics for multi-frame shadowgraphy, interferometry and Faraday rotation; diffraction grating and crystal spectrometers for visible, UV and x-ray spectroscopy; and neutron detectors and diagnostics. In addition, customized diagnostics for specific applications will be considered and discussed with the user.
Additional laser diagnostic capabilities include interferometry with Mach-Zehnder and differential interferometers, Faraday rotation and Schlieren diagnostics at 532 nm with 4 CCD cameras, and two laptops for data acquisition. Optical grating spectrometer with an ICCD camera is available.
